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🎧 GHUM, "Bitter". Just dropped on the Everything Sucks label - GHUM is a London based quartet. I guess it's "post-punk" - so the attitude is there but there's an intricacy to the music as well - and the dynamics shift enough to avoid it all going down like a pop-punk mouthwash. Laura Guerrero Lora stretches out her slight rasp with flights of true pissed-off-ness ("You messed up/With my fear, my desire/Damn you") and sings in English and Spanish. Love the guitars here, too.

🎧 Just Mustard, "Heart Under". Not the best band name but this Dundalk, Ireland quintet delivers some noisy atmospheric throb, fire-on-steel guitars, with ethereal vocals and a steady pulse from the bottom.

🎧 Piano Circus, "Skin and Wire". Bill Bruford is my all time favorite musician. I probably should have been aware of this LP before yesterday! It's one of his last recordings (he retired in 2009). Piano Circus is a 6-piano ensemble and thru their work with composer Colin Riley, they came to work with Bill's label and together released this almost-avant jazz record. Filled with jumpy arpeggios, cool vibes, and Bill's signature sound, its a great addition to his vast catalog.

I highly recommend the documentary "Muscle Shoals". It's a beautifully filmed doc about not just the people and the studios that produced the music, but the mythology and mystery behind the actual place. Made in 2013 (some of the key people have since passed), it features some of the most recognizable music in American history.

🎧 Phoenix On The Fault Line, “Basement of the Coliseum”. It’s easy just to say POTFL is a proto-prog-metal band augmented by a horn section, but they are so much more than that. Wrapped inside a time travel/zombie hunter mythology that permeates their songs, POTFL is a quaking mountain of a band. They are big, loud, and mathematically precise. There really is no other band like them. Every song brings the thunder and cracks the very earth.

🎧 Metric, “Formentera”. Opening with an epic 11 minute track may be a little out of the box for Metric but damn they make it work. From there it only gets better. Emily Haines is in full chanteuse mode on a set of songs that are as gorgeous as they are foreboding. “I’m a true doomscroller/cant seem to shut it down/until the worst is over/and its never over”. That’s us, folks. And Metric still matters.

🎧 Into It Over It, "Twelve Towns". I gotta admit this band passed under my radar for 10+ years until last night when I saw them play live. Sometimes you just have to "be there" I guess. I'm sold on IIOI now and I started with this catalog obscurity. Apologies to Evan Weiss, who is a great songwriter and a ridiculously personable performer. Great band too.

🎧 Paper Machetes, "Balancing Act" EP. Thanks to @westendculturalcentre for posting about the amazing Paper Machetes. Cinematic pop songs that are sparse when they need to be. Christy Toronno has a deep and slightly smoky delivery that's just "rural" enough. Good stuff. Digging it.

🎧 Various Artists, “Through the Soil II”. Originally a benefit for The Trevor Project, all proceeds from this 37 song comp will now be sent to the National Network of Abortion Funds. The ask is $5 and there are enough good songs on here to justify way more than that. Faye Webster, Julien Baker, Swim Camp, Hiding Places and so many more have donated new tracks. You are bound to hear something you like. Go get your charity on and your earbuds in.

throughthesoil.bandcamp.com/al

🎧 Soccer Mommy, "Sometimes, Forever". Posted without editorial. Just check it out. You'll love it. Maybe the record of summer.

🎧 Porcupine Tree, “Closure Continuation”. The standard bearers of alt-prog return for one last blast of killer riffs and airy ruminations. Reduced to a trio, the bass and drums are still laying down some nasty shit, and when the guitar solos hit, they soar. Steven Wilson’s forays into poppier territory in his solo work are nowhere to be found. This is classic PT, melding all of their best turns into a grand 47 minute finale. It’s a master class.

🎧 Angel Olsen, "Big Time". Nothing against country, but anytime an indie artist reaches for the lap steel I get apprehensive. So I needed a little convincing, and my wife's all day binge did the trick. Yes, Olsen has countrified, but not southern fried, this record. Most of it falls into the grey area anyway, and the songs/lyrics are so good I stopped caring about 10 minutes into it. A sparser and simpler record for a more complicated time. "Go Home" is an epic.

🎧 Bartees Strange, "Farm to Table". TFW a great artists new album exceeds expectations. 'Nuff said.

FYI. If you subscribe to any level oF HULU, it is broadcasting Bonnarroo live all weekend.

🎧 Motorpsycho, "Kingdom of Oblivion". Some afternoon psych-prog from Norway. Their albums are like little journeys - take off, ascent, cruising altitude, descent, and landing. Great band, and don't let the "prog" deter you - these guys are a fun listen. Killer riffs and deep grooves.

🎧 Rocket From The Tombs, "Rocket Redux". RFTT was the best "proto-punk" band on the mid-70s Cleveland scene. Re-formed in 2003, they finally recorded a clutch of their best songs for this album. In between RFTT stints, David Thomas, Cheetah Chrome, Craig Bell et al went on to form three of the mid-70s most important bands: Pere Ubu, Dead Boys, and Saucers. We all know "Sonic Reducer" but "Amphetamine" is one of my all time favorite songs. .

🎧 Quantic Soul Orchestra, "Stampede". This is the funk/jazz full band project of DJ/Producer Will Holland. If Fela Kuti walked into a funk jam session, it might sound like this. It might not. There are a lot of ethno-music theories being tossed around here, but the grooves are solid and the feeling is loose. This works in the living room or on the dance floor.

🎧 Supreme Beings of Leisure, "11I". I don't know, can you listen to SBL on a Thursday work-morning? Seems like more of a post-rave Saturday night thing - when the drugs are fading and the reality of Sunday hasn't kicked in. Geri Soriano's voice works any time for me. "Rescue me from these everyday fires" is a choice lyric. This record has aged really well.

🎧Pool Kids, “I Hope You’re Right”. PK is one of my top bands right now. They integrate twisty guitar/bass parts into their indie rock foundation. Their new single has dropped ahead of a July LP. This new stuff is a leap forward for them, and they aren’t chucking musicianship in favor of sugaring things up. Yeah the harmonies are sweet but the music is muscular. Check out all of their releases (all streamers). Video is here: youtu.be/2Ky9eXEjlhY.

🎧 WEEN, "The Pod". Say what you will, but when WEEN was at the peak of their Scotchgard-huffing, nose-thumbing madness, they were masters of a dozen genres. The lo-fi recordings were a smoke screen (listen to "The Mollusk" LP for proof), they always knew exactly what they were doing - they just didn't have the desire to wait for a bored record industry to catch up. If "GodWeenSatan" is their opening salvo, this may be their manifesto.

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MP Cavalier

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